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Friday, May 20, 2011

Hiking up Gunung Berembun, Jasar and Perdah all in one day!

Date climbed : 17 May 2011

How to get there :

Travel time : 4 hours to Cameron Highlands

On Monday night, 16 May 2011, we departed to Cameron Highlands after work. I was in Alvin's car and we left from Bangsar at about 8.10pm. We arrive at the Tapah R&R at 10pm and waited for the rest to arrive. We finally departed from Tapah R&R at 11pm and headed towards Simpang Pulai on route to Cameron. The reason that we use Simpang Pulai is because we are spending a night in a temple in Kampung Raja. We arrived at about 1am.

At the temple:

We slept in the open (with roof cover) in the temple's stage. The floor is made from cement and can be cold! One would need a sleeping mat and sleeping bag to sleep comfortably at this place. There is proper shower and toilet facilities in the temple to wash up/clean up.

Our plan was to wake up at 7am the next day but most were awake by 6+ or so... some because of the cold, some because of mosquitoes, some not used to sleeping on the floor..... I had a good solid 3.5 hours sleep, from about 1.30am to 5am. After a quick clean up, we walked to the nearby shops for breakfast and packed lunch.

Gunung Berembun

We started at 9.10 walking through the gates of MARDI Centre heading towards jungle route 5. From the starting point of Jungle Route 5, we took 1.5 hours to arrive to the peak. The terrain is first 45 mins fairly flat and balance 45 mins about 50 degrees gradient (like Angsi). The return is the same way, taking only 45 mins to the starting point of the trek.

The starting point of the trail

Mid way. After this is when the ascend starts

Gunung Irau and Gunung Brinchang from the peak

After the trek, we stopped by Lord's Cafe (above Marry Brown) to have scones.... the strawberry cheesecake was YUMMY too..... and after all the fattening stuffs, we headed on to Jasar. (It already rained and stopped a few times while we were eating and some were contemplating if we should still go to Jasar)

Gunung Jasar

We got to Tan's Camelia Garden at about 3.30pm and with the photographers present, some surely had to spend some time photographing the gardens.... Mrs. Tan's garden is beautiful - full of flowers and herbs. Its a beautiful sight and nice feeling just to be in her garden.

We started at about 3.45pm and got to Jasar peak at about 4.35pm. The trek is not tough with some gentle slopes. One will come through a "lalang" space (like Broga) and you know you are on the right trek. Nice view at the peak and along the way.

Orchids at Tan's garden

Almost at the peak

Final stretch before the peak

View at the peak

Gunung Perdah

We headed on to Perdah at about 5pm after checking that we all have sufficient headlamps as it would surely be dark by the time we get out from the jungle. Facing the rock (as above) this way, the route to Perdah is at 1o'clock. Take that path and just follow it. It is a descending path all the way until almost at the peak a slight uphill for about 5 minutes. The hike into Perdah peak took about 30 minutes with several forks along the way. Follow the right path until the uphill hike which is on the left. At the top, there is another fork, take the right one. There are NO signboards along the way, so please be careful. We were lucky as we were approaching the peak, we heard a lot of voices and we just followed the voices to the peak. There was a very big group of students at the peak and they came up from the Kampung Ruil way. (only 15 mins from the Kampung)

It was raining pretty heavily and only the waterproof cameras can be used

As we took a short cut out into this Kampung (we felt it was safer than to back trek as it was getting dark) - we had to walk 4.5km from Kg Ruil into Tanah Rata. This took us another 1 hour to get back to Tan's Camelia Garden. I tried to hitch hike but no one would stop except a nice gentleman but then his pick up truck was covered. We wanted to get on to the back portion so that we would not dirty the person's car. So at the end we all walked all the way and then cleaned up at the garden. There is a bath/washroom for us to use at a donation.

We finished cleaning up at about 7.30pm and proceeded to Brinchang for organic vege steamboat.

We finished dinner at 9pm and left for home via the Tapah way.
I got back to Bangsar at 12.15am, all in all a great day of achievement. For all of us, its our first time doing 3 mountains in a day and then had to drive all the way back and work the next day! Special thanks to Alvin who arranged the trip and to all the drivers, you were all great!